●英字新聞社ジャパンタイムズによる英語学習サイト。英語のニュース、よみもの、リスニングなどのコンテンツを無料で提供。無料見本紙はこちら
英語学習サイト ジャパンタイムズ 週刊STオンライン
『The Japan Times ST』オンライン版 | UPDATED: Wednesday, May 15, 2013 | 毎週水曜日更新!   
  • 英語のニュース
  • 英語とエンタメ
  • リスニング・発音
  • ことわざ・フレーズ
  • 英語とお仕事
  • キッズ英語
  • クイズ・パズル
  • 留学・海外生活
  • 英語のものがたり
  • 会話・文法
  • 週刊ST購読申し込み
     時事用語検索辞典BuzzWordsの詳しい使い方はこちら!
カスタム検索
 

Opinion

Criminal Negligence

By DOUGLAS LUMMIS


刑事責任の追求

刑事責任の追求 東海村の臨界事故は、JCOがことの重大性を 認識していなかったために被害が大きくなった。 事故のない世界などありえないのだから 原子力発電所の存在自体が問われて当然ではないか。

From the recent nuclear accident in Tokai, Ibaraki Prefecture, we can learn a lot.

One thing we can learn is that both the company and the government care more for their reputations than for safety. The reason given for withholding information, and for not evacuating people outside a 350-meter radius, was "to avoid panic."

Think. Panic means "extreme fear." It is what people may feel when they are in great danger. The people near the nuclear plant at Tokai were in fact in great danger.

But the nuclear elites (shall we call them "NUKES"?) didn't want the public to know how great that danger was. As a result, probably more people were exposed to radiation than would have been if the public had been warned promptly and honestly.

But the fact that the NUKES would risk people's lives to minimize bad publicity is not so surprising. They've done that before. More surprising is the degree of their incompetence. Most people suppose that nuclear technicians know what they are doing. Now it's clear: They don't.

In particular, NUKES don't understand the significance of what they do. They haven't grasped the nature of the situation they have gotten themselves into. They had no plan for what to do in case of an accident.

First they simply waited, hoping the thing would go away, like a bad dream. Then they called for outside help. Somebody thought of calling in the U.S. military, though what it could do was unclear. After a while, NUKES remembered to drain the cooling water from the building, which helped some.

Then they persuaded some workers to carry sandbags and stack them around the outside wall, which helped some more. Each worker who did this of course received some radiation. Then, 13 days after the accident, somebody noticed that the air vents were still on. So these were turned off.

The picture in the newspaper of the sandbags piled up all higgledy piggledy around the build ing would be comic if the matter weren't so serious. Now they say it's all safe. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't go near the place, no matter what they say.

The newspapers also reported that many of the people who were told to stay inside their homes kept their air conditioners on, because it was hot. What kind of mentality is this? Have the people in that town been fed so much propaganda saying nuclear power is safe, that they are unable to believe the danger is real even when the plant is spewing out a cloud of neutrons?

I imagine someone saying, "Oh, sure, it's dangerous, but it can't be so dangerous that we should make ourselves uncomfortable."

Now some of the nuclear power elites are being investigated for criminal negligence. This is as it should be. Nuclear power is criminal negligence. There is no such thing as a world without accidents. You build nuclear power plants, you get nuclear accidents. It is precisely criminal negligence to build them at all.


Shukan ST: Nov. 12, 1999

(C) All rights reserved



英語のニュース |  英語とエンタメ |  リスニング・発音 |  ことわざ・フレーズ |  英語とお仕事 |  キッズ英語 |  クイズ・パズル
留学・海外就職 |  英語のものがたり |  会話・文法 |  執筆者リスト |  読者の声 |  広告掲載
お問い合わせ |  会社概要 |  プライバシーポリシー |  リンクポリシー |  著作権 |  サイトマップ